Don’t be a greedy dragon
We aren’t dragons and your knowledge isn’t a cave full of golden treasures. Stop being so uptight and share what you’ve learned. The fact is, you’ll probably end up learning more in the process.
You know that it’s long been a motto of mine, be a man of value. In 2020 I revised that to the phrase #TakeActionGiveValue because I want to encourage myself, and you, to not only share your knowledge and provide value, but to take action to keep pursing your creative desires. Which, in turn, is actually pursuing more knowledge that you can then continue to pass on.
It’s a beautiful cycle really, is it not?
It kills me when I talk with creatives that feel like they have to hide their process, or the thinking behind their work. I understand feeling like you don’t want someone to just rip off your idea, but at the same time the legacy we leave and the reputation we earn is built on the willingness to share of ourselves.
I was having a conversation recently with a friend on Twitter and he was talking about his process of some upcoming videos he’s releasing on his YouTube channel. It got me so excited talking to him because he just gets it. He truly wants to help, truly wants to give back to the community whatever knowledge he’s earned in the hopes it will help someone else.
I want you guys to go give him a follow, both on and on his YouTube Channel. The links are right there and if you go check him out, let PinkHat Photography know that I sent you! He’s getting his channel built and is sharing some really good information for any of you that are wanting to learn a little more about photography. Well worth your time, his real world example of explaining aperture and those pesky “F” numbers was brilliant.
Anyways, I’m not writing this to just plug my friend(though I’m more than happy to do that!). I’m writing this because I want to stress the importance of passing your knowledge on.
Most of the most successful creative people I know or follow all have one thing in common.
They share.
And they share freely.
Look at some of the biggest names, , , … They ALL know the value of sharing what they’ve learned. They also ALL have an insatiable desire to continue learning from others in order to pass that knowledge on to you and I.
So why are you holding back?
Some things I learned this week
- My good friend Vincent of Because We Make Podcast reminded me that even though we may not realize it, we ALL still inspire and have an impact on others through our creations. Just because we don’t see it or hear about it after the fact, it still happens.
- I realized that my peaks and valley’s, those moments of feeling on a great roll and then feeling like I’m totally useless, are happening much more frequently. I’m not sure why, but on the positive side, the negative stretches are lasting much shorter than ever before. Hours instead of weeks. I’ll take that as a positive.
- James Altucher shared an article with me about his idea of The 10,000 Experiment Rule. It’s something I’m still figuring out how to implement into my own life but I needed to read this. I think because I so often feel like I’m not sure where I’m supposed to be going, or what my concrete direction/plan is, the idea of The 10,000 Experiments makes a lot of sense. I think it may help you as well, go read his article and then let’s talk about it.
- “My head won’t leave my head alone
I don’t believe it will
Till I’m dead and gone”
~Dave Matthews Band from the song Rhyme & Reason
These lyrics have been stuck in my head all week as I’ve been struggling through this cold, which has kind of left me feeling a bit out of sorts creatively. It’s amazing how much a certain lyric an just speak to us on a completely base, visceral level. - Which brings me to a fantastic conversation that had on his podcast, In Between, this week. He was speaking with about the passing of Rush drummer Neil Peart. One section, regarding our inputs and influences as young adults, really got me thinking hard about those creatives that have made the largest impact on me at different points of my life. As Jon reminds us via a quote he shares, and I’m paraphrasing here, “We are today who high school shapes us to be”. The idea being that so often who we are is shaped by those influences we had during those highly impressionable days of our youth, during high school. When we are old enough to be seeking our own identity, yet impressionable from youth.
Don’t be a greedy dragon
My wish for you, as I wrap up this last post of the week, is that you will find the amazing power of sharing your hard earned knowledge with the world. It does you no good to sit on it, hoarding it like a big greedy dragon. If you insist on being a dragon, because let’s face it dragons ARE pretty damn cool, at least pick up that knowledge and take flight. As you fly, just drop that treasure, that knowledge wherever you go.
Oh, one last side benefit of being open and sharing whatever knowledge you’ve gained with whoever may need to hear it…
It feels effing amazing.
Knowing you’ve helped someone along their journey even a little bit is a great motivator to help push you along your own journey. Give it a try, won’t you?
David (Usually Dave) Szweduik is a photographer, podcaster, and all around geek from the great state of Minnesota and can be found weekly on his podcast Adventures in Creativity. There you’ll find him having conversations fueled by curiosity around the amazing world of all things creativity. If you want even more terrific creativity based content, feel free to join the fun with the Newsletter!
Originally published at https://aicpod.com on January 17, 2020.
